Two young Samoans have been invited to New York to claim the prestigious awards they have won in the Voices of Future Generations International Children’s books series competition.
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Lupeo’aunu’u Va’ai from St. Mary’s Primary School is the Gold Certificate and International Publication winner while the Silver Commendation Certificate has been awarded to Alexandria Slaven, of Vaiala Beach School.
Winning the awards means that the students were invited to receive their awards in person and to attend the Children’s Summit at United Nations Headquarters in New York on Sunday.
However, they will not be making the trip because they were not given enough time to prepare and raise funds for it.
But not being there doesn’t mean that Lupe and Alexia will not celebrate their achievements from afar. With the support of their parents, the students will go with plan B, using online technology on Skype to participate in the event.
The Gold Certificate award for Lupe was based on a story she wrote titled“The Voice of the Pacific.”
She based her story on a hero she saw as Katalina from Samoa.
“Katalina was trying to save Samoa from all the rubbish that’s lying around,” said Lupe.
“Her way of helping Samoa was doing little things like picking up the rubbish and she started a green project in school. She then ended up getting involved in spreading the message overseas.”
The 11-year-old student acknowledged the support from her principal, teachers and parents who had backed her all the way.
Looking at the future, she hopes to become an environmental lawyer to continue her fight to keeping it green. Lupe is the daughter of Tu’u’u Simeamativa and Nonu Saleimoa Va’ai from Siumu and Magiagi.
Alexia, on the other hand was honoured to have won the Silver commendation award.
Her love for the beach inspired her to write about “A home for Mr. Crab”.
In her story, the 10-year-old portrayed the problems occurring around the beaches with sea level rising, people cutting trees, coastal erosion and sand mining where people sell it for money to build big buildings.
“My story is about hope and how humans and animals can work together,” said Alexia. “We humans are not only suffering from these problems but the animals are affected as well.”
Alexia hopes to be an environmentalist in the future.
Her parents are Julie Julianne and Leusoga Slaven of Fasito’o-tai.
She thanked her parents, school and her spiritual parents Rev. Siaosi and Nu’u for keeping her in their prayers.
The competition allowed young authors and writers from around the Pacific to tell their stories on topics of Sustainable Development Goals in their countries.
Tu’u’u said she is thankful that the students have an interest and commitment on climate change issues at a very young age.
“The issues they are writing about is very crucial and if we start them at this young age (c/c fighters) I’m certain there is hope for us in the future to,” said the mother.
“We see this as a huge encouragement to lift them and hope they can continue and encourage and motivate other kids.”
Alexia’s father, Leusoga said the stories from the girls are good as their voices are being heard and the issue will affect their generation.
The Voices of Future Generations international children’s books series international Commission will be seeking to help illustrate, publish and disseminate the stories from the students as part of a regional online anthology for the Pacific islands.
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